Alabama OL Lester Cotton Ready to Return to the Field After Injury

Tuscaloosa native Lester Cotton is set to play in Saturday's A-Day game, which didn't look like a complete certainty a few months ago.

A knee injury suffered during the Sugar Bowl victory over Clemson kept him out of the national championship game. After starting every game in 2017, Cotton didn't want to finish the season the way it did, but he's grateful that the injury hasn't kept him out longer.

"Playing in the spring game, I want fans to see I bounced back from an injury that a lot of people can't really bounce back from," Cotton told reporters. "Hopefully the fans, the fans and friends, see like, 'Alright, he's ready to go.'"

The fans will be watching the entire offensive line during Saturday's A-Day game to see who emerges as the favorites to earn a starting spot. With Bradley Bozeman's departure and the absence of Matt Womack to injury, there will be a lot of new competition up front.

"You've got a lot of talented people on the offensive line and obviously you've got some people that were playing for when I got hurt or when Jonah (Williams) got hurt. Right now we're really just trying to find the best five. Every offensive lineman we've got is competing their tail off right now for their spot."